Weather and fish

Just wondering how late in the season Bass stay aggressive (IE attacking top-water hardbait). Id fish them until the lake iced over but knowledgeable advice would be much appreciated as the nights have started to cool, and the Sam Seasonal Beer @ Margaritaville is now Oktoberfest.

I catch bass right up until ice in. I actually catch more in the COLD water then I do in the warm water. Switch to "reaction" baits like jerkbaits, spinnerbaits and crankbaits starting in October. Some parst of the cape never ice over and I have caught many bass in January and February.

Thanks for the advice! My wife is going to love hearing that I can fish all year round! Especially on our winter trips to the cape!

I always maintain that the 2 best months (sometimes 2 and half months) are setpember,october and sometimes first 2 weeks of november for bass fishing. My favorite time is any day it was sunny and mild during the day and fish the last 2 hours before sunset. Action is usually fast, some of the most agressive I've ever seen any fish.

Put it this way. If the water is 60-75 degrees bass are active. If its hotter than that they are sluggish and deep. colder than that they are sluggish and deep.

You can catch bass all year round. I see people regularly pull them out of ice fishing holes. After all. A fish has to eat =)

Perfect! Best of both worlds! aggressive fish and Pumpkin Ale Oct-Nov just keep getting better and better. Should my trusty jitterbug continue to work or should I take the advice of my buddies 7 year old and change things up?

Put it this way. If the water is 60-75 degrees bass are active. If its hotter than that they are sluggish and deep. colder than that they are sluggish and deep.

You can catch bass all year round. I see people regularly pull them out of ice fishing holes. After all. A fish has to eat =)

This is not true at all. I have caught bass on jigs in bushes with the water in the upper 30's and skim ice on parts of the ponds. My jerkbait and crankbait fish in mid winter come out of less then 5' of water

I have caught bass through the ice in less than 5' of water. In fact, the best spot at one of my favorite lakes produces bass all winter in less than 8' of water near an inlet to another pond.

I think we should think about it like this. . .
all fish are cold blooded animals. . .I'm thinking it's a mis-conception that fish "bury" when it's cold,when in fact I think it may be more due to the o2 level of the water being very low when covered by the ice layer. Ted nailed it I think. . .if you can use common geography to find a nice current below the surface of the ice I think we'll find all species would travel through those areas that maybe a little higher in 02 because of said current(s)

Remember, cold water sinks and warm water rises, so the water will be warmest right under the ice.

Most warm water species are sluggish in the winter for 3 simple reasons. Lack of oxygen, lack of heat and lack of food. It has been my experience that if you eliminate these "lack ofs" then you will catch fish consistently. I have had days in the winter with over 20 carp to the bank in one session, in December...when many people said they stopped biting when the water went below 35 degrees. Then just to prove a point I did it in January and February as well...this last winter at one point after shoveling some 3 feet of snow off the swim.

The key in my mind is, as has been stated finding the fish. Using your head and tracking the heat. Fish will follow warm breezes, the sun, inflows of warmer water etc.

The second and third part you can have more control over. Oxygen for instance you can help by keeping the snow cleared off your chosen swim, if ice fishing. Snow covering the ice reduces the plants and algae from creating oxygen. Since decomposition and metabolism continue normally the oxygen levels will continue to drop but not be replenished if the ice is covered. Finding clear ice could be beneficial in this regard as well. Keeping it clear could produce higher oxygen levels over all and possibly stir fish movement a bit.

Food is the simplest to control really. If you can find a good spot that holds fish..how many of you have tried keeping small particle like bread crumb or oats going into your holes? Something to think about. I have underwater footage, albeit bad quality atm, of a chummed/groundbaited area for carp. What is neat about this is after a few moments of the ground bait being there the shiners/chub/suckers moved in to have a feed. About 10 minutes after that the Bass moved in to eat them...food for thought that is. If you give the small baitfish a reason to be in your swim, the predators will have a reason to be there as well. It is the same reason old timers poke holes in a clear soda bottle, fill it with water, tie it to a string, toss in a few shiners and let it dangle through a hole hear their ice hole..

Anyway it is way to early for me to be talking serious about anything lol. Off to the airport soon to drop Nate off. Hopefully my early ramblings help a bit

huh maybe i'll try fishing shallower waters this year. Although last year i had the auger motor touching the ice before i hit water. (blade is about 3 feet). + the lakes i fish have steep drop offs, they go from roughly 5 feet to 20 feet in a rather quick drop. so finding shallow water to ice fish is a little tough. But i'll keep that in mind. (Also i dont trust Ice all that much lol so i wait til Ice has been on the water for quite some time before i head out.

This year i hope to get bass in shallow waters! (Pike is what im after though)

I thought for a second I was at home watching an episode of Bill Dance Outdoors , ya know when he's in some little managed farm pond and pulls out 10lber after 10 lber, while sitting down of course, he has that slow drawn out voice as he explains ALL the details to ya.....YAWN..... LMFAO, good stuff though guys I actually learned alot from reading these posts

i have bst luck with that

in the spring something shiny not to fast
in the summer topwater, rubber and a lot of noise and fast
in the autum back to shiny again and slower
winter is perfect for slow and shiny and noisy

but considering that what we do is fishing - you just need the right place and the right time to make all the theories stand upside down
and not be true at all

Remember, cold water sinks and warm water rises, so the water will be warmest right under the ice.

This is not true in winter. Just the opposite is. Water just below the ice is as close to 32* you can get without freezing. Just before ice in and just after ice out the surface temp is very close to 32* yet down in 6-7--8-feet and deeper the water temp is more like 37-38* and it stays that way all winter. Why? Because of water pressure deeper water (relitive term) never reaches 32*. If it did ponds would freeze from top to bottom every year and kill all the fish.
This is why on deeper ponds bass do go deep in the winter. The water there is actually warmer then the water in the shallower water. It's the shallow ponds (ponds under 8') that fish stay the most active in cold weather months.

Last edited by stratos1966 on Fri Aug 19, 2011 6:14 pm; edited 1 time in total